Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a treater combination unit, and more particularly to a treater combination unit which preferably performs the functions of a heater treater and one or more of the following: a sales gas heater, an instrument gas heater/dryer, a free water knockout, and/or a two-phase separator, and which can optionally be transportable in a single self-contained unit.
Description of Related Art
Currently many well production systems rely on a heater treater and a two-phase separator and a gas heater. However, such units are typically large stand-alone units which are typically transported and erected, housed, and connected individually one-at-a-time at a well site. This results in significant costs in shipping, placing, and interconnecting such locations at a remote well site. Often, such systems do not fit together simply. Because well sites are often significant distances from the nearest parts suppliers, the installation and interconnection of such components is often forced to be suspended while workers go in search of needed interconnecting components.
Further, because some of the features of some of the systems have similar needs—such as a heat-sinking fluid source and a heat source, the use of such stand-alone units results in significant energy waste and inefficiencies by each component re-creating the same features that are already provided on other units at a well site. Not only does this result in highly inefficient overall system design, it also significantly increases the overall cost—not only in the additional time and expense in setting up and connecting the equipment, but also in the duplication of similar components for each stand-alone unit.
There is thus a need for an apparatus, method, and system which can replace several of the stand-alone units at a well site with a single combined, cost-effective unit and which can greatly speed up the time required to set up a well site, thus resulting in a significant cost savings and a faster return on investment for companies drilling wells.